Wondering About Accelerated BSN

Hi everyone!
I'm currently going into my 5th year at Stony Brook in NY, I have a double major in health sciences and psychology and a minor in business. This coming fall I am going to be applying for accelerated BSN programs but am finding this to be more difficult than I thought! A lot of schools ask for different prerequisites, and its really throwing me for a loop especially because in my final year my classes are set and adding in extra ones is quite difficult to do when your schedule is already determined for you. I have taken anatomy with lab, chemistry with lab, microbio with lab, developmental psych, stats, and most other common classes. I was going to do physiology this upcoming semester, but my school (of course) doesn't offer a lab i can take! So now i'm thinking about doing an online phys. with lab. Long story short, i am running out of places that are logical for me to apply to. Right now im just looking at stony brook (which is a long shot) and the university of rochester. I'm also looking into a couple out of state programs. Any suggestions of schools that may not require labs or those that dont ask for as many prereqs? Any info on how likely it is to get into rochester, which is really what i'm hoping for?

Hey! Believe me, I know how frustrating it is when every ABSN school asks for different prerequisites. But, from my experience a majority of the schools require sciences with labs... I haven't come across one that I've applied to that hasn't. Although, it seems you've taken Anatomy and Physiology separately so I'm not sure how that works. The frustrating part is that some require two semesters of chem with lab, some don't. Some require biochem, etc. Maybe this thread will help you out better since it seems you're also from NY:

It's really helpful and you can also visit the sites of the schools listed. Sorry, not familiar with Rochester so I can't help you out there.

Best of luck and feel free to respond if you have any more questions.

Last edit by donnasRN on Aug 12, '09

Aug 12, '09

Joined: Jul '09; Posts: 183; Likes: 5

Sounds like you have all of the pre-reqs except for Physio. I've been looking at ABSN programs too, all of them want Micro, Stats, and A&P.... apart from that it really varies. I've come across programs that don't even require Chem.

Aug 12, '09

Joined: Aug '08; Posts: 14; Likes: 4

I am a grad from acclerated BSN and though it seems frustrating in beginning with prereqs etc but in the end it s better than doing three year BSN degree.

Time flies in no time and you'll discover that you have better chances of landing job as helathcare professional than other fields. I have heard that if one goes to banks for loans, RN gets more preference these days than a computer professional because it is believed that nursing has more stable future in this economy than IT.

best of luck !

Aug 12, '09

Joined: Apr '07; Posts: 32; Likes: 5

It's frustrating. I did my anatomy and physiology separately, but in the end the anatomy class wasn't counted as having enough of a lab. I couldn't find a school that offered just plain anatomy with a real lab, so I ended up going to my local community college and retaking the classes as A&P I and A&P II with lab. An annoying waste of time and money, but what can you do? I know that most schools won't count an online class as having a lab, although I considered Rochester's accelerated program and remember that they DID accept some online classes as prereqs (can't remember exactly which though since I ultimately did not apply).

The good thing is that most schools don't expect you to have ALL the prereqs done when you apply. It seems like you have most of them done, so that should count in your favor. Keep us posted!

Aug 12, '09

Joined: Jun '04; Posts: 280; Likes: 656

Whatever school you apply to, make sure they will take Anatomy and Physiology from separate schools. Someone in my Physiology class was taking it a second time because he had taken anatomy at one school and Physiology at another. When he applied for the nursing program (not sure what school) they told him that A+P had to be from the same school.

I was able to CLEP or Dantes out of a lot of different kinds of prereqs. I just studied from prep guides usually for 1-2 weeks, took the tests and passed. I was able to test out of 12 credit hours that way. English 6 credit hours (the school I applied to didn't like the English that I took), Principles of Public Speaking 3 credit hours and Microeconomics 3 credit hours. They have a lot of different classes you can test out of. Google them and find the list. Also, make sure that the school you are trying to get into accepts them. It saved me a ton of time and money. Good luck!